Snuggie Fatigue: Are We Moving Beyond ‘The Blanket with Sleeves’?

Has the inglorious era of the backwards bathrobe come to its inevitable end? Will the "Sleeved Blanket" join ranks with fallen veterans like "The Bedazzler", "The Clapper," or "Blu-Blockers"? If you analyze traffic to the two largest Snuggie transaction sites, the answer may just be yes. Unique Visitors to getsnuggie.com (88,961) and freesnuggie.com (135,785) are down 33.8% and 26.2% between January and February 2009, respectively, placing UVs back near October

Has the inglorious era of the backwards bathrobe come to its inevitable end? Will the "Sleeved Blanket" join ranks with fallen veterans like "The Bedazzler", "The Clapper," or "Blu-Blockers"? If you analyze traffic to the two largest Snuggie transaction sites, the answer may just be yes.

Unique Visitors to getsnuggie.com (88,961) and freesnuggie.com (135,785) are down 33.8% and 26.2% between January and February 2009, respectively, placing UVs back near October 2008 levels. Page Views and Visits show similar trends; however, perhaps the most damning evidence of "Snuggie Fatigue" lies in the Average Stay numbers.

Between August and December 2008 Getsnuggie.com posted relatively high Average Stay numbers, between 4:30-6:30 (higher than popular content blogs like Techcrunch, Engadget, or Boing-Boing). However, since the initial peak those numbers have been disappearing faster than arms in a slanket.

The main attraction on the Snuggie sites, besides being able to transact, and surely the reason behind the high time on site, is the infomercial itself, which plays on page load. Early spikes in Average Stay were probably fueled primarily by curious passers-by watching, rewatching, and spreading the infectiously dubious site throughout the memeosphere. It seems the initial exuberance has faded.

While the effects of the holiday bubble and the impending hot summer months have never been a secret, it’s not hard to imagine the good folks at "The Snuggie" feverishly trying to convert cult mania into something more sustainable. The Valentines Day Snuggie Surge is probably not a sign of healthy evolution from novelty to staple. Unfortunately, if web traffic is any leading indicator, it looks as though we may all go back to the time before sleeves sometime soon.